Dr. Joe Mattioli - Goodbye--Godspeed To An Old Friend

In late June 1998, I received a letter in the mail. It was from my Editor at the time, Joe Patrick of Gater Racing Photo News, an upstate New York motorsports trade paper that covered the weekly short track action in New York, parts of New England, and Northern Jersey. I was the NASCAR Winston Cup (as it was called in those days) correspondent. But this wasn't your ordinary letter. It was one of those letters inside a letter. The letter inside was unopened and in a hand-written envelope that had my name with Gater's mailing address on it. It came from Pocono Raceway.

I opened it up with a good amount of curiosity. What I found inside was a short typed note from Dr. Joseph Mattioli, the founder and CEO of Pocono--the eastern Pennsylvania NASCAR track I had been to dozens of times as a kid growing up. The letter was sent to let me know how much he enjoyed a column I had penned in the previous week's paper. It seemed that Doc Joe, as I would grow to call him (instead of the usual Doc which everyone called him), took particular delight in this column.

Now, those of you who know me personally know that I can sometimes get on a pretty big soapbox, yes even more so than I do in the pages of Circle Track. And this column was just one of those times. It was written in response to the political hot potato that was the New York Yankees. Around that time Yanks owner George Steinbrenner was holding, or rather trying to hold, the city of New York hostage over building the Yankees a new stadium. Now I'm not talking about the current one that just got completed a year or so ago. I'm going back some 14 years. Anyway, George was upset that NYC wouldn't cut the Yanks any big tax breaks to build the park. Basically, he wanted the city to fund the build with taxpayer dollars or he threatened to move the Yankees to New Jersey. It turned into a politically charged debate that caught my interest. Without delving into the content of the whole column, suffice to say I slammed the billionaire Yankees owner for not having the guts to fund his own stadium. In the course of my journalistic tongue lashing I used Doc's trials and tribulations while building and running Pocono as the perfect example of how it should be done. Doc used his own money, nobody else's, to build the track and I was emphatic (still am today) that public dollars should not be used to fund NASCAR tracks. Well, when Doc read the column, he felt compelled to send me the note (he would tell me this later).

Being the "good" journalist, I called Doc personally to thank him for the acknowledgment of my work. It was during the course of that conversation when he invited me out to Pocono to learn firsthand of some of the improvements he was making to the facility. I naturally jumped at the opportunity and headed east two hours into the Pocono Mountains.

By this time in my motorsports "career" I had interviewed plenty of NASCAR personalities from Earnhardt Sr. to Bill France Jr. to Hut Stricklin, but other than seeing him around the track during the two Pocono stops, I never interviewed Doc.

Most interviews during that era would last maybe 30 minutes (if you were lucky). Well, this interview with Doc turned into much more than just a Q&A session. It lasted four hours and included a tour of the infield, tracks (yes there is more than one), and surrounding property. At this point in time, Doc was leveling the old garage area and building a completely new facility. The new plans and layout, which he showed me in his office, carried a black and white racing theme, and were designed to be highly functional. One of the features he was most proud of was the fact that he surrounded the garage area with a wrought iron fence, just 56 feet from the cars. The fence allowed fans full view of the all the action going on. You could see all the crews, cars, and trailers. He also kept his famous autograph alley area where fans could line a fence for an autograph from their favorite driver as they walked to the starting grid. Keep in mind that Doc designed the whole thing himself years before Daytona built its "FanZone" (which it charges to get into). Doc designed the new Pocono with one thing in mind, to help make his track the most fan friendly venue on the circuit.

There was another side to the whole project that was indicative of Doc's approach to business. Nothing was wasted. For example, when they tore up the asphalt in the old garage area to lay down fresh new pavement they didn't simply toss the old stuff into a landfill. Doc rented an asphalt milling machine to recycle the old pavement. If you go there today, many of the infield access roads are paved with the millings from the old garage area.

Also included in the build was a 150-site motor home park for the racers, 124 of which have water, sewer, and electricity. He yanked out all of the old 375 toilets and replaced them all with Long John, the biggest toilet facility in the world, with 1,000 stalls. Doc was adamant that Pocono would never have lines for the restrooms again. To this day I'm not sure whether he was more proud of the see-through fence or Long John...probably the fence…maybe. Finally, he built an expansive Midway that is completely landscaped with 14 40-foot-high Blue Spruce, 200 picnic tables and gazebos all over that anybody can use to relax. You could say that Pocono was green long before green was a fashionable buzzword.

All of the success that Pocono has had over the years is an outgrowth of some very difficult times. Doc pulled no punches in the interview when talking about how he almost lost the track.

He had served in the Pacific during World War II as a Navy medic. Using the G.I. bill, he enrolled in the dentistry program at Temple University (where he met his soon-to-be-wife, Rose.) Upon graduation, he developed his dental practice into a very lucrative business by working 12- to 14-hour days, six and sometimes seven days a week. He then began investing in and developing properties in Philadelphia and Northeastern Pennsylvania. That's when he became involved in the start up of Pocono Raceway. But Doc and his lovely wife Rose nearly went broke a number of times while building what is arguably the most unique racetrack on the NASCAR circuit.

They held their first race on the long-gone 3/4-mile track in 1968. That was followed by the first 500-mile Indy race on what is now called the "Tricky Triangle" in 1971 and then the first NASCAR 500-mile race in 1974. But thanks to construction mistakes, the CART-USAC fight and a lot of inexperience, they ran into some serious financial problems.

I remember Doc telling me, "I was almost bankrupt two or three times but was too dumb to realize it." He went on to say that he had kept all the keys to the racetrack on one very large key ring. "I had gotten to the point
that one day I went down to the bank that held the papers on the track, walked into my banker's office, tossed the keys on the table, and said, 'Congratulations, you now own a racetrack.'" As Doc told me, when he turned around to leave, the banker wouldn't let him. After all, back then no banker wanted to own a racetrack.

It was shortly thereafter when Bill France Sr. asked Doc to meet with him in New York. France Sr. wanted the Mattiolis to stick it out and not leave the business. Doc makes no bones about the fact that he resisted France's desires. Toward the end of the meeting France pulled out a business card and penned a message for Doc on its back. During our interview Doc pulled the card out of his desk and showed it to me. It said, "on the plains of hesitation lie the bleached bones of millions, who within the grasp of victory, sat and waited and in waiting died."

Card in hand, Doc headed back to Pocono, deciding to give it a shot. Doc said that the Frances gave much moral support and a lot of good advice following that New York meeting. Bill Sr. and his wife, Annie B., came to the races the next two years to show their support for Pocono. Shortly thereafter he and his son, Bill Jr., gave us our second NASCAR race. From there, Pocono stabilized and became a jewel in the NASCAR crown. Still today, it's the only family-owned racetrack on the NASCAR Sprint Cup series schedule.

During my interview with Doc, we walked around the infield and talked not only of racing and his planned facility improvements, but of the importance of how you treat your customers, in his case, the fans and the competitors. Put them first in your mind and you can be successful he said. I grew up in New Jersey just a couple of hours east of Pocono and I have spent a lot of time there over the years, in the grandstands, on the track and in the garage area. I have seen the transition of Pocono from a NASCAR track (my first visit in the mid-'70s) to a world class, sustainable motorsports complex (today).

One of my favorite, more recent, memories of Doc was during the annual Media Picinic that Dr. Rose throws during the June race. Held in the infield at the Mint Julep Club (first floor of the tower), the Mattiolis use it as a chance to say thanks to all of the media members who cover the races at their track. Inside the club is a nice lounge area with couches arranged facing one another to form a square. A couple of these squares back up to each other. I was sitting in one of these squares with my father. Directly behind us sat Doc and Chris Economaki talking about the past history of Pocono. It seemed like they covered everything, USAC, NASCAR, ARCA, and more. I leaned to my dad and whispered, "If only I had a recorder." Doc turned around and said, "Rob you'd need a truck load of batteries to keep it running with the two of us."

Doc was 86 when he passed away on January 26 of this year. Not surprisingly, he was in the office daily, until last fall, overseeing all aspects of the Pocono Raceway operations. Three years ago, at age 83, he spearheaded an ambitious solar energy project. He built a 3 megawatt photovoltaic solar energy system on 25 acres at the track, making Pocono the world's largest solar- powered sports facility. Like the reuse of asphalt in the late '90s, Doc's solar farm is another example of how forward thinking he really was, not just a track owner and not just a promoter, but a visionary of how a motorsports facility should be run. Many a short track in this country could learn from Doc.

I built a great relationship with the Mattiolis over the years. I always prodded Doc to write a book about his experiences, but he preferred let his facility do the talking. Everybody in this business has a track that they consider home. It may be where you started racing or it may be where you won the most races, or maybe neither. Perhaps it's where you just feel totally relaxed and part of the family. Having been to hundreds and hundreds of racetracks around the country, there is only one Pocono and for me it's like home, thanks to Doc.

Fun Pocono Facts

Pocono is located just 90 miles from New York and Philadelphia and is within 200 miles of 60 million people.
There are actually three separate road courses contained within Pocono's 2.5-mile main track. Each course utilizes one of the NASCAR track's corners and all three tracks can run at the same time. None of the corners are the same and all of the straights are different lengths, making Pocono one of the most challenging racetracks for crew chiefs to set up a car. It's also the only non-road course track where the NASCAR boys shift. They do it going down the front stretch and yes that straightaway is long enough to land a small plane.

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In 2009, Dr. Joe received the Philanthropic Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Association of Fundraising Professionals for his generous and continuous contributions to local civic organizations, hospitals, schools, and charities.